NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Health) Minnesota says the legislature passed about half of the needed mental health measures in its closing hours, and hopes for a special session to wrap up the rest. Sue Abderholden says there’s money to create “crisis stabilization” beds in residential mental health facilities and youth shelters, “For the kids who are boarding in the emergency rooms but don’t need hospital level of care, this will be a place for them to go, so I think that’s really important.”
Abderholden says there’s more funding for mental health services in schools, plus mobile crisis services, “So that we can have a mental health response to a mental health crisis instead of sending out police. So that’s really good.”
But left undone, Abderholden says, is funding to stabilize children’s programs and build more psychiatric residential treatment programs. “They [the legislature] also didn’t fund money to implement what’s called the 9-8-8 number. This will take over the suicide lifeline and text line, so you only have to remember three digits, which makes it easier.”